1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a network game progress control system, a network game progress control method, a network game progress control program which control the progress of a network game which users play in a game space, and a recording medium which stores such a game progress control program.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, as use of the Internet has become widespread and data transfer rates have increased, network games have generally been played using terminal devices used by users and a network game server device, which are connected via the Internet. As such network games, a variety of competitive games such as sports and fighting games are played.
When these competitive games are played, because the Internet is used, unspecified multiple users can participate in the game as players. Therefore, when unknown people compete, since the abilities and so forth of opponents in relation to a game are not known, in comparison with ordinary games in which a competition is held with game devices as opponents by employing these game devices as stand alone game devices, game progress can be afforded a surprise quality and it is possible to provide the game with a certain appeal.
However, when data such as that required for game progress is transferred using the Internet, data transfer rates vary depending on the communication line which users use, for example CATV (Cable Television), ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network), and on the types of modem used, and, as a result of a disparity in data transfer rates, user operations are not reflected immediately in game progress, and advantages and disadvantages are produced with respect to the state of progress of the game.
Further, also depending on the capacities of the personal computers or the like employed by users as terminal devices, user operations are not reflected immediately in game progress, meaning that advantages and disadvantages are produced with respect to the state of progress of the game on account of differences in hardware capacity.
Accordingly, when a competitive game is played between users when such a data transfer rate disparity and/or hardware capacity difference have not been dealt with, a user that uses a terminal device with a slow data transfer rate and a low hardware capacity is then unable to adequately demonstrate his or her own skill in the game itself. Consequently, the user cannot sustain his or her original interest in the network game, and becomes less interested in participating, meaning that it becomes impossible to smoothly manage the network game.